Milly, Molly and the Mountain

Text: Gill Pittar

Illustrations: Cris Morrell

Year: 2002

Publisher: Milly Molly Books, New Zealand

Age: 4 – 6 years

No. of Pages: 24

Book Type: Picture Book, Life Skills Education

ISBN:  942 1 87729 718 6

Charlie has a big, bright hot air balloon. Milly and Molly watch as he goes over the mountain in it. 

The friends are thrilled when, one day, Charlie agrees to take them and their cats for a ride. It feels magical at first but the feeling fades away, rather quickly, when they get caught in a thunderstorm. Soon, they’re eager to get back on the ground.

I liked this book for the simple but profound messages the author conveys - the world looks neat and tidy from up above and the grass is not greener on the other side of the mountain. :-)

Excerpt

The river looked long and blue and curly.

The trees were in straight rows.

The grass was so green.

And everything looked very neat and tidy.

I Love You, Little One

By Nancy Tafuri

Year: 1998

Publisher: Scholastic Press, New York

Age: 2 – 5 years

No. of Pages: 32

Book Type: Bedtime, Picture Book

ISBN: 0 590 92159 2

Here’s a beautiful “I Love You” book.

I loved this book because it borrows profoundly from nature - coolness of a river, shelter in a pond and the snugness of earth. It also celebrates other unique attributes of our world like the strength of a mountain and constancy of stars.

It might be a mite too intense for a little child but it might just find resonance somewhere in their little hearts. :-)

Excerpt

“I love you as the stars love you,

Constant and bright above you,

Giving you joy and peace and wonder.”

Augustus and his smile

By Catherine Rayner

For Ages: 4 and above

No. of Pages: 32

Publisher: Little Tiger Press, London

Year: 2006

ISBN: 978-1-56148-510-9

Augustus the Tiger has lost his smile! He looks everywhere – under the bushes, on the tops of the tallest trees, on snowy mountaintops, even, at the bottom of the deepest oceans. He does find his lost smile but in the unlikeliest place of all.

This book has a message for children and grown-ups. It’s easy for us look for happiness everywhere else but the right place.   

The illustrations are quite clever from a grown-ups’ perspective but I’m not so sure if children might enjoy turning the pages of a book that is rich in  browns, blacks and dark hues of the rest of the spectrum.

Excerpt

Further and further Augustus searched.

He scaled the crests of the highest mountains where the slow clouds swirled, making frost patterns in the freezing air.

He swam to the bottom of the deepest oceans and splished and splashed with shoals of tiny, shiny fish.

He pranced and paraded through the largest desert, making shadow shapes in the sun.